The Wrong Righteousness

Self-righteous is a word for someone who thinks they are always right. If you think you are always right then everyone else is wrong. That doesn't work in God's thinking at all. Matthew 5:17 “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose. 18 I tell you the truth until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved. 19 So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God’s laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. 20 “But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!

A self-righteous person is not in a good place. God cannot be truly God to you until you realize that our righteousness is as filthy rags. A person like this will always position themselves to be RIGHT no matter what. The only problem with that kind of attitude is "We are sinners" in every area of our life, so our perspective is messed up at best. Jesus warned the Pharisees about being self-righteous and distorting the Law of Moses. Then He said the ultimate argument-stopper when He said He came to complete the Law. That was a put down to them and it caused them to hate Him and devise plots to kill Him.

A self-righteous person will always seek to kill the righteousness of God in their life and in doing so they put a wall of protection around their heart so God cannot break that pride bubble. In Jesus' day, the most "religious" people were the most self-righteous. When we are born-again self-righteousness has got to go!! It is replaced with the Holy Spirit and all the fruit of that Spirit. Look at what Titus wrote in Titus 3:4 When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love,5 he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. Religion is a failure at best and as Paul wrote in Romans 10:3 For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. Only God's righteousness is acceptable righteousness and God is ALWAYS right.

Time to trade in the Wrong Righteousness for the Right Righteousness and let God put us in our place. Read what Paul wrote to the church in Galatia in Galatians 2:16 Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law. Keep the faith. Faith in God, not ourselves. We aren't the king of the mountain, but the King of Kings is.

Think about this verse and let God work in your heart. Galatians 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

The Pilgrimage Continue...

David Warren